WAND Education Fund

WAND Education Fund Board of Directors
November 2007
The Board is composed of women of various ages and religious beliefs who come from a variety of economic backgrounds and geographical locations.

WAND Education Fund Chair,
Lane Stone, Alexandria, VA
Lane divides her time between Alexandria, VA and Sugar Hill, GA. Until last year she was WAND's alternate delegate to the U.N. and has been on the WAND Education Fund Board since 2000. She is the coordinator of WAND's media project, “Raising Women's Voices.” Previously Ms. Stone developed a political leadership program for high school girls.

Edith Allen, Arlington, MA.
Edie Allen is an artist and activist with years of experience organizing and recruiting for WAND. She is president of the Colombe Foundation, which supports peace organizations, and also president of an artisans' cooperative in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Hon. Mary Cathcart, Orono, ME.
Elected in 1996, Mary is a Maine state senator and member of WiLL. She is term-limited and cannot run again this year. In 1994, she ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mary is currently Chair of the Joint Committee on Appropriations and serves on the Maine Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs. In 1995, President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Commission on Child and Family Welfare, which she chaired.

Hon. Joyce Elliott, Little Rock, AR
A State Representative who was termed out in 2006, Ms. Elliott earned her bachelor's degree from Southern Arkansas University and her master's degree in education from Quachita Baptist University. Ms. Elliott is a public school teacher. She is a member of the board of the Arkansas-American Federation of Teachers and the College Board of Trustees. She also is a member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Rep. Jessia Farrar, Houston, TX
In her fifth term as state representative from northeast Houston, Rep. Farrar works on issues such as domestic violence, access to higher education, assistance for community-development corporations, and economic development. In 1998, she began a mentoring program for promising young women, called Latinas on the Rise.

Hon. Pan Godchaux, MI
Pan is a political consult with The Godchaux Safford Group. She served her term limited six years in the Michigan House of Representatives on appropriations, and in 2006 ran for Congress. Pan is founder of the Institute for Local Government at the University of Michigan Dearborn. She serves on the Oakland Schools board, has served on Birmingham Public School board, as an elementary teacher in Detroit Public Schools and as a print and broadcast journalist. After graduating from The American University she served in Bolivia in the Peace Corps.

Jean Gordon, Little Rock, AR
Ms. Gordon has been an active member in the peace, social justice, and civil rights movements for many years. She chaired Arkansas� Peace Links Board and Peace Center Boards where she edited a bi-monthly newsletter showing the effects of the military budget on state residents. She founded and chairs Arkansas WAND, and recently received an Arkansas Peace & Justice Heroes award from the OMNI Center in Fayetteville.

Ellie Gunderson, MI
Elizabeth (Ellie) Gunderson is attending Georgetown University, where she is majoring in Pre-Law and Social Justice. She spent her high school years organizing Youth Diversity Symposiums, working for the Youth Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity, and creating a program entitled Exploring Diversity for the Next Generation. She was her school’s representative to the Southfield School Board, student representative to the Southfield Parent-Youth Guidance Commission, Vice President of her school’s Student Congress, and one of two Michigan delegates
selected to the U.S. Senate Youth Program in Washington, D.C.

June Mathiowetz, MN
June currently works as a Senior Financial Analyst with the City of Minneapolis. She completed her masters’ degree in Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota and spent over four years in the Minnesota State Senate. June’s peace activism has roots with the Minneapolis-based Women Against Military Madness and the people of Mexico and Ecuador who profoundly shaped her world view by sharing their stories and lives with her during her undergraduate years.

Betsy Rivard, GA
Betsy has been active in Atlanta WAND for about 16 years, serving on the board for at least eight years. Her chemistry background and Oak Ridge, TN past (her father worked for the Atomic Energy Commission) made her concerned about the nuclear issue (weapons and power). Betsy also serves on the boards of the UN Association of the USA, Nuke Watch South, Georgians for Gun Safety, and the Chattanooga Conservatory.

Sayre Sheldon, Cambridge, MA
A founding member of WAND and President Emerita of the National WAND Board, Sayre has been a long time political and social activist. She is a college professor of literature and an author of several plays and articles about women's issues and peace issues. She edited the anthology Her War Story: 20th Century Women Write About War, published in 1999 by Southern Illinois University Press. She represents WAND as an NGO at the United Nations.

Jill Steger, OK
Jill is currently campaign manager for Pat Potts for State Senate in OK, and was a delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention. She co-founded Kosovo Refugee Relief Effort at Trinity University in TX and has volunteered with several other service organizations. Jill also co-authored a successful Headstart grant for the Wewoka Public Schools in Wewoda, OK.

Councilor Charleta Tavares, Columbus, OH
The first African-American woman to hold a leadership position in the Ohio General Assembly (Minority Whip; representing 22nd House District for five and a half years), Tavares has been a member of the Columbus City Council since 1999. She has served as Chief of the Children’s Protection Section in the Ohio AG’s office, Associate Director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, and is now the Chair of the City Council’s Health, Housing and Human Services Committee.

Jessica Wilbanks, DC
Jessica is a Program Associate at the Fourth Freedom Forum and the Co-coordinator for Faithful Security: the National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Weapons Danger. Founded by Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. in 2005, Faithful Security is a national coalition of religious organizations, clergy, and laity committed to taking action to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons. Jessica’s previous projects include developing a national coalition of students speaking out to protect Social Security and working as an organizer with MoveOn PAC during the 2004 presidential elections.